Estes Park Trail-Gazette News

Not all minority groups in Colorado take advantage of deferred action

By Yesenia RoblesThe Denver Post

Posted:
06/11/2013 12:01:00 AM MDT

Anna, a 25-year-old from Taiwan, works to complete her Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals documents at in her apartment in Denver. Anna has lived in the U.S. for more than 14 years. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

Anna was 10 years old when her parents sent her to America alone, figuring it was better she get away from their home in Taiwan, where they were constantly fighting.

When she arrived in the U.S., Anna, who asked to be identified only by her first name, spent two years in a boarding school and then lived with a host family while her parents paid for private school.

In high school, when she was beginning to think ahead to college, she realized she was no longer in the country legally.

"I didn't know I was undocumented until I was applying for college," she said. "And even after that, I didn't fully understand."

Now 25, Anna is among a handful of non-Latino immigrants in Colorado who have submitted applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

"Applying for it is a very emotional process," Anna said. "But I feel like I will finally have the privilege to be here, to be welcome here."

Data obtained from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services through a Freedom of Information Act request shows a country-by-country breakdown of the 10,105 applications submitted for deportation relief through the end of March just from Colorado.

Immigrants from 57 countries have applied, but those from Mexico and other Latin American countries account for almost 98 percent of Colorado applicants. Community leaders said the number of non-Hispanic applicants is low compared with the estimates of the eligible population. When the program launched Aug. 15, experts estimated 25,000 Coloradans qualified.

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The program allows immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children to apply for a driver's license, work permit and relief from deportation for the next two years, provided they continue to meet all the requirements, including having no criminal record, having graduated from high school or be attending school.

The program does not grant them a path to citizenship or permanent legal status.

Most Asian immigrants enter the U.S. legally, but the report estimates up to 15 percent
are in the country illegally.

"I don't think they are learning about" deferred-action status, immigration attorney Woon Ki Lau said, "and we don't have a good way to reach them."

Of the more than 45 applications for deferred action that his office has helped process, eight were for non-Latino applicants. Among those, four applicants were from Indonesia, two from Mongolia, one from Africa and one from Poland.

A lack of outreach by the immigration advocacy groups and attorneys, language barriers, fear of the government — often carried over from tyrannical home countries — and cultural stigmas related to speaking about immigration have become obstacles for non-Hispanic groups seeking legal status.

Atim Otii, an immigration attorney who works closely with African immigrants, said the African community is reluctant to talk about legal status.

"It's almost like a taboo to discuss your lawful status," Otii said. "So when there are issues, people don't talk about them. There's not enough open dialogue."

Like many immigrants in the country illegally, they fear that giving the government information would later make them easy to locate and deport.

Otii recently talked with two African immigrants who had questions about applying for deferred action. She described them as courageous for having come forward with their questions, but even after she talked with them, they chose not to apply.

"They are extremely frightened about applying," Otii said. "Just the fear of having to go back is extremely frustrating for them."

While the program states that applicants should be able to renew their documents after two years, it is also possible the program could be eliminated.

Defense attorney Harry Budisidharta said he has known immigrants who move from state to state every few years to keep their legal status hidden, so providing information to the government about their whereabouts seems contradictory.

"They are valid concerns. I can tell them what I think will happen, but in two years, we don't know what the government will do with their information," Budisidharta said. "There are definitely more people that would qualify."

Showing proof

Besides showing proof of when they entered the country, deferred-action applicants must also prove they have been here continuously, often through school, bank and medical records. But receipts, date-stamped photographs and other documents also have been submitted.

While a criminal history can automatically disqualify someone, there are no clear guidelines on how much other proof will be deemed sufficient for the other requirements.

As of March 31 in Colorado, 21 applications had been denied. In the U.S., 2,352 applications were denied through April, according to information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Daniel Kuzbiel, an insurance broker active in his local Polish community, said he believes the lack of outreach is a bigger problem.

"There are a lot of people in the Polish community without legal status," Kuzbiel said. "However, there's not really an outlet that brings these types of news to the community."

Reaching out

Some attorneys said they are trying to start doing more outreach to the minority groups, talking to them about immigration issues.

Otii speaks to immigrant groups at every gathering where she gets the chance.

Budisidharta, who works criminal, not immigration, cases, said his work can be affected if clients don't let him know of their unstable legal status.

He said he is trying to organize a roundtable discussion with various community leaders to talk about immigration issues and has already begun working to improve the perception immigrants have of police.

"We're working together with local police departments to let them know things are different," Budisidharta said. "You're not going to be asked for a bribe."

Anita, a 23-year-old immigrant from Poland who was approved for the deferred-action program in February, said she learned of the program only through word of mouth.

She asked to be identified only by her first name because she doesn't want to be known as an immigrant without legal status.

"At first, I didn't want to believe it," said Anita, one of six Polish immigrants in Colorado who has applied for the program.

She went to a lawyer after doing some online research.

"The first lawyer gave me a crazy price, and all the things he said I need to get was crazy," she said. "The next lawyer made it seem like I could actually get it."

For Anna, the Taiwanese immigrant, some optimism — and knowing she and her parents had already tried everything else — eliminated the fear of applying.

"My parents, they understood better than I did, and they tried every possible way to try to find a visa for me," Anna said. "My mom even suggested I get married. She tried to help me find a person."

But that didn't work out.

Anna's parents then sent more than $50,000 from Taiwan to pay a relative of her host family who said he would adopt Anna so she could get legal status.

During her last year of high school — when Anna was ready to graduate early, had been accepted to college and had scholarships lined up — the man moved away.

Anna stayed with friends to finish school but
never saw the man who was supposed to be her adoptive dad again.

"We never went to the police because of my immigration status," Anna said. "We weren't sure if that was acceptable. I didn't want to be deported."

Anna said applying for deferred action is not as scary as living without legal status. She said she walks to and from work and school and always looks over her shoulder looking out for police or ICE agents.

Anita, the Polish immigrant, wants others to know that the trouble of applying was worth it.

"When you get the paper, it's one of the happiest moments ever," Anita said. "The first thing I did was go to my bank and add my social security number."

Now Anita looks forward to going to college to study culinary arts — despite objections from family members who tell her she doesn't need college to work in a kitchen — learning to drive and pay taxes, she said.

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